Laminated panels of a number of different types--basically including a core formed of a foam or similar material with thin face layers on each surface of the core--have been used as building materials and structural members for a great many years. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,231,216, 3,331,174, 3,471,984, 3,544,417, 3,841,958 and 4,351,870 provide examples over more than four decades of the great variety of such laminated panels that have been used.
Actually, these patents provide only limited illustrations of laminated panels that have been in use in the past, for laminated panels have been known for a much longer period of time than the period to which the patents relate--since at least about 1920, and probably much earlier. Some of these panels have had spacer members of one type or another in the panel interior, but none so far as is known have ever had the particular type of interior divider that is utilized in the laminated panels of the present invention.
Over the years, laminated panels have been provided in a myriad of shapes and dimensions. So far as applicant is aware, in every case such panels have been individually and specifically made in exact sizes as dictated by the requirements of a particular job.
By a novel use of perimeter frames and cross braces to form a standard master laminated panel of unique construction, the present invention makes it possible to produce predetermined combinations of laminated panels in predetermined shapes and sizes smaller than the original standard master panel, but at the same time to retain the advantages of convenience and economy that are achieved by shipping master panels in a standard size, and only thereafter dividing such panels at the user site into smaller ultimate panels of the desired sizes and configurations.